A Dark Room is made by a one-man outfit called Doublespeak Games, which registered its domain around the time Candy Box got going. (The registration is concealed.) The game begins with you in the titular dark room, able to light a fire only and stoke it. From there you encounter a helpful stranger, and venture out into the forest to gather more wood and trap animals.

Comments on Doublespeak's blog page and in other forum threads (warning, spoilers) hint at a much deeper story, which some call more cohesive than Candy Box's whimsical magical journey. I've only been playing A Dark Room for about 40 minutes and was determined to get enough wood to build the smokehouse first, probably because I hadn't eaten breakfast yet. I keep getting these mysterious scales in my trap. What's that all about?

The game's creator says he has patched out several bugs that have cropped up since the game launched last week, but reminds players that A Dark Room isn't mobile-browser friendly. " I might expand ADR a bit (eventually)," he said, "but I wouldn’t expect a full-blown sequel. I’ve got lots of ideas rolling around in my head."

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Aniwey, the creator of Candy Box, gives A Dark Room a thumbs up. "A fantastic game," he said over Twitter last week.